Subject: Re: clarifications on changing how fields work
From: Leonard Rosenthol (leonardr@lazerware.com)
Date: Sun Mar 12 2000 - 07:08:50 CST
At 12:11 AM -0600 3/12/00, Justin Bradford wrote:
>We need to make fields containers, but how versatile of containers
>do they really need to be?
>
>1. Will it contain text other than (previously) generated field text?
Yes.
A good example of this would be a "hyperlink field" (aka URL)
where the field text would be the name (foo), while the "extra text"
would be the URL itself.
>2. Do we need to encapsulate other fields in the container?
Not sure I understand this one. Are you suggesting a
"hierarchy" of fields?
>For one, it just doesn't make sense to have user editable text inside
>field generated text.
Isn't that how custom field work though?
>So, I think fields should only contain the generated field text, such as:
>
><field type="creationtime" format="MM/DD/YYYY">03/11/2000</field>
>
>Again, referencing other fields (for non-scripting purposes, as that will
>be done in a sane, non-Word way [ie. actual scripting]), would occur like:
>
><field type="mailmerge"
>format="User $data1 is cool"
>data1="field.namelist.value">Joe is cool</field>
>
>Agreed?
In which case, for my example, you'd simply have my URL be an
attribute of the field - works for me!
>This has the added cool effect of allowing us to put labels on images,
>which might be used as an alternate display method (ie. instead of
>actually showing the image, show the text label) like with web browsers
>and the alt attribute on images.
Or it could be used for captions for images, like "Picture 3".
>Drawbacks: the user cannot edit (either insert/remove text) or change the
>formatting properties of subregions of a field. So one could not bold just
>the AM/PM part of a time, for instance.
As expected, I think.
LDR
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